I Win.

[butterflydreaming]

I was completely across the country, but the sky and weather in Hartford, Connecticut wanted me to believe that I had not left the Pacific Northwest. The multi-petal cherry trees bloomed in CT as they were blooming in Seattle; the petal confetti graced the sidewalks and stirred in cool breezes. When I go south to California, the color of the sky's blue fades to a laid-back, bleached denim. Over the weekend I walked under skies the same hue as home. Had I not travelled for hours to get there, I could have believed that I was in an unfamiliar city somewhere near Portland. The convincing detail was the proliferation of violets. The little flowers grow wildly among the dandelions and look just as healthy.

This was my first trip further east than Utah, and my first in-the-same-geography meeting with abebes_heir. I've met online friends before, and as with meeting adventurat and dctemo13 back in whenever-that-was, it didn't feel like a first meeting. (In all three cases, I had pictures.) Spending the weekend in each other's company was easy in a way that would normally make me very suspicious. Actually, everything since our intitial online meeting has been oddly easy. I'm choosing to believe that the Divine thinks that our being on opposite sides of the U.S. is enough obstacle. I think the cross bar and padlocks are still on the manor door*, but friends have the side-door key and are often sitting around in the kitchen. Some essential questions have been posed, but that's really a topic for a different post.

Waterbury, an hour from Hartford and abebes_heir's hometown, looked more the way I imagined a New England city. The Brass City is "built on seven hills", which means that the neat, Colonial houses nest between oak and other deciduous trees on a rolling landscape.Big city snob that I am, I didn't expect it to have two independant record stores. I picked up a couple of discs at Phoenix Record Shop. (Recent reports indicate that I passed the friend-test, too.) I found it interesting when talking to Damon that the Seattle indie store that he had heard of was Sonic Boom. Phoenix is so named because the store burned down and they rebuilt it.

I ate well over the weekend, from the "greasy" roadside diner (at 4am) to the fine dinner at Chale Ipanema, a Brazilian and Portuguese cuisine restaurant. We raced to get there before the kitchen closed (Sunday) and made it just in time for empanadas (served with an amazing ripe mango & green chiles combination), fruits-of-the-ocean seafood array for me, and tender beef medalions in a peppercorn sauce for my companion. Though that was plenty of food, we *had* to get the warm chocolate truffle cake for dessert. This was a 5" diameter beauty of a lava cake, adorned with a passionfruit sauce. Normally this is served with vanilla ice cream, but I upgraded it to the house-made coconut ice cream. I kept thinking how much you all would love this dessert. We only meant to have a few bites, but we couldn't stop until we had eaten it all.

Another place in Harford that I wished we had a clone of in Seattle was Tisane Tea & Coffee. I brought the tea menu home. There are more than 50 options that you can drink at the shop or buy to take home, in a variety of black, green, chai, tisanes, white, blended, scented, red, and mate. We shared a pot of magreb mint "chai", an herbal mix of mint and flowers and whatnot. This was brewed up in a glass pot (french press diffuser style). Our glass mugs were heated with a hot water rinse and served on saucers with a napkin & spoon.

Not only do they have an impressive array of tea, but Tisane is a funky but comfortable space with a good ambiance. They also served espresso and have a full bar and served appetizer-like food. Throw in hot chocolate and you would have the place I often complain that Seattle needs!

I took a good number of pictures. I'll post some of the ones from Bushnell park (with the carousel) and Elizabeth park (with the roses). Click any of the pictures in this post to get to my Flickr account. And you have to see what they have outside the Timex museum.

It will be J's turn soon to head this way and visit our Emerald City.

Oh, and to my chagrin, on Sunday he beat me at tic-tac-toe. Nevertheless, I win.

Comments

[buhrger]

it didn't feel like a first meeting. (In all three cases, I had pictures.)
which makes me wonder about how our first meeting felt...

just in time for empanadas
mmmmm

we *had* to get the warm chocolate truffle cake for dessert
preaching to the choir here

i'm sure there was a fourth thing to which i was going to respond, but i can't find it now. ergo [posts]

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Our first meeting had a lot of other elements involved, not the least of which was that one of our "hiccups" had happened just before. You made a good impression on me, but I think I've already told you that.

I had an excellent lava cake here in Seattle, too, at a new swank pizza place called Talaricos. I image that they will still have it (paired with cinnamon ice cream) on the menu in the next month with an A. That one is smaller; I think it will be a case of one-for-each-of-us... {big grin}.

I just realized that I still don't have a chocolate icon. How can I not have a chocolate icon?!?

[buhrger]

I just realized that I still don't have a chocolate icon. How can I not have a chocolate icon?!?
perhaps you're not the real butterflydrming? that's the only explanation i can think of. :-) heck, if i had more userpix, that's one of the first things i'd chase down.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

When I get home so that I can upload an image (I'm at the library), I will rememdy that.

Unbelievable.

I am the real butterflydrming. Being distracted and forgetful (of what is essential and important) is proof.

[ironymaiden]

you have been to Teahouse Kuan Yin, right?

[ironymaiden]

upon rereading, full bar. damn. that sounds excellent, because there's nothing like tea with a little drambuie on a winter night.

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

If I were Empress, every good bar would have good tea and good coffee. (And good hot cocoa.) I followed one of the links about Tisane and found that it's the kind of place that attracts an "alternative" crowd, too.

[amheriksha.livejournal.com]

I was completely across the country, but the sky and weather in Hartford, Connecticut wanted me to believe that I had not left the Pacific Northwest.

Ya know, I feel the same about Japan every day. I keep seeing things that are just like home, and the energy here, while faster than Seattle is a little bit the same. It's odd, but welcoming at the same time. At least for me. ^ ^'''

Ooooooh.... Coconut ice cream.... *dies thinking of it*

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you have takoyaki now. Have you had takoyaki now?

[(Anonymous)]

I've had Takoyaki once. I ate a ball off of someone else's plate. They were the uber big kind, with a bunch of stuff on top, and only a little tako in the middle. I really want to try the little ones now though. Tako is so yummmy.... *gazes off*

[rolypolypony.livejournal.com]

HARTFORD HAS A TEA SHOP????? Sure, it couldn't have one when I lived just outside of Hartford growin up, could it? Grrr!

I practically grew up on the Bushnell's carousel, and went each year to see the roses at Elizabeth Park :)

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

The carousel was beautiful! And in restored condition, unlike the Griffith Park carousel, near where I grew up.

[joyful-storm.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely visit.

Connecticut has always been a pass-through state for me, or a container for visits (to relatives, for example) where exploring the surroundings was low on the priority list. I haven't really been shown its charms by an intrepid native guide, which now seems a pity.

Since New England's spring lags behind ours, do you return and find time unsettlingly advanced? (Whoa - leaves!)

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Everything seemed about the same, oddly. Dandelions, oak leaves opening, cherry blooms. The weather was unusually warm, I was told. And it started raining when I left.

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

Easter Island Devo Dude? Hat's not quite right, somehow. Hmm.

Sounds like a lovely trip. When the psychocommagrlz met up in L.A. last October, we had lunch at a fabulous tea shop in Pasadena whose menu was ten pages long. Mind-boggling. You'd have loved it!

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

It was a probably a place that opened *after* I moved away. The only one I knew of was at the Huntington Library. I had tea there last Fall. Then again, where you went may have been there for decades, but since I wasn't online, I wasn't as adept at exploring my own city.

I'm getting a high tea post-birthday celebration tomorrow thanks to the organizational prowess of ironymaiden. ^_^

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! Hope it's fabulous.

I see you've friended me back on flickr - whee!

[butterflydrming.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reminding me that you had a flickr account!

[adventurat.livejournal.com]

I've seen some of the pics on your account before, but didn't realize (or perhaps remember?) that they were on flickr. More contacts is good!